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Hello, everyone,
I'm Alyce Slater Reynolds, GUAA President.
I'll be moderating our panel of the four student leaders.
I like to begin by introducing the four of them,
but in order to do so, we'll be able to see
some video clips of the way they were then.
Hi, I'm Greg Hlibok, hello, everyone, all across the world.
Hello there, I am Bridgetta Bourne-Firl.
Greetings to everyone all over the world.
This is indeed a very special day.
Hi, I'm Tim Rarus.
I'm sure the whole world can watch us this afternoon
and thank you for participating.
If you couldn't be back there back,
you are our heroes and thank all of you.
Hello there, I'm Jerry Covell.
I'm very happy to be here this afternoon
and share a bit of history for everyone around the world.
Welcome to everyone.
Thank you panelists and welcome.
It's a delight for me to be able to host this event
with all our GUAA chapters and friends around the world
and here in the United States,
we have more than 25 different groups
who have gathered together as chapters
to host this particular event
and this viewing from all over the place.
I want to send greetings to every single one of you.
I would like to mention just a few
who are actually gathered together today,
greetings to all of you in Florida,
to those of you in Austin, Texas, a big hello.
To Seattle, Washington and the Bay Area.
Hello to you as well.
Those of you viewing in Amsterdam, greetings
and Zurich, Switzerland, we send our hellos.
Munich, Germany, hello to all of you,
as well as those of you watching from Helsinki, Finland.
Jos in Nigeria,
we welcome you as well.
Alberta, Canada, greetings to all of you,
and thank you for hosting this very special event.
If there was some way we could develop an instrument
that would be able to,
through a meter, measure the significance of DPN,
it would never come to be even sufficiently close
to the impact we all have recognized.
DPN has resulted in a number of changes
of which I'd like to mention a few here.
First is the way hearing people have viewed us
as an inferior group of people, that's changed to the point
that they see us being much more superior.
We, as deaf people, have been able to get advanced degrees.
We've been able to see bills passed
that brings equality and justice to us as a community.
And on the international front, we have seen college programs
established to serve deaf students in those countries.
These are tremendous changes.
The most profound impact of DPN has been experienced
by deaf people themselves.
This has been a liberating event that has changed the lives
and experiences of every deaf person
and I would like to ask our panelists
if they would like to share comments regarding that change.
Sure.
Why don't we get started?
I'm sure we can name a plethora of impacts from this event,
but the most important ones were the psychological effects
that happened in deaf individuals
in terms of their thinking and the mindset,
quickly changed overnight.
Prior to the DPN, I remember growing up
in an environment where oppression was prominent
and you belonged to a certain place and a certain group
and that's where deaf people were supposed to be.
We were very limited and we were told by the environment
that's where you will be and in a place for you,
perhaps becoming a printer, or a trade-worker,
and anything more than that, was impossible.
But after DPN that mindset changed immediately.
The mindset was then a deaf person could do anything.
So I could see the night and day change
of the impact of DPN.
You certainly can become anything you want these days,
an attorney, a doctor, all of the opportunities
are wide-open, and that's the most powerful impact of DPN,
is changing that mindset.
And a deaf person now becoming - feeling more empowered.
Like I said, that was the greatest impact.
And speaking just for yourself being an attorney,
you've been involved in politics
as well as teaching at a university.
Perfect examples of that very thing you just mentioned.
Let me just briefly now talk a little bit
about how to these four came together.
Jerry Covell ran for SBG President
alongside of Bridgetta Bourne just one year before DPN began.
And they lost to Tim Rarus.
One year later,
Greg Hlibok stepped into the position of SBG President,
just the day before the DPN protest began.
You might assume there was a bit of competition
between the four of them, but as soon as DPN began
they came together as one unified political group.
So I want to congratulate you on that
and just recognize your involvement there.
Speaking now to Jerry Covell.
he was seen as the person who lit the fire,
that inspired a number of individuals in what he did
and in what he did for the crowd,
and I'd like to share with you a quote,
I'm gonna do this very carefully, this says,
"He did not believe that deaf people
regardless of hearing loss,
communication modes, cultural identity,
regardless of all of those differences,
they come together to share a common bond.
And that bond is a fight against communication barriers
so thoughtlessly created by the larger non-deaf society."
Jerry, I'd like to ask you to speak of some of the changes
that have been realized since 1988,
especially in regards to those communication barriers.
Our lives and deaf people in general,
dealt with accessibility issues.
When you're talking about wanting access to the telephone
or any type of services, even at the bank or the store
or individual workplaces
when you talk accessibility in general
this is what I was referring to in my quote
was a issue of oppression.
And now we have seen some tremendous changes
and couldn't ask for anything better in terms
of telecommunications, with video relay services
all the improvements to interpreting services.
We're well aware of all the services available
and deaf people now are not viewed as subordinate
just because there's communication issues.
Now with captioning and access to the news
and back then we had news, but only had access to the weather,
when it was live.
So we were always just unprepared
for other circumstances other than the weather.
There's still a few issues that need to be ironed out
or improved and that's why we have Greg heading up the FCC
and I am sure he'll make every effort
to make those changes, but we have gone a lot way
from '88 to now, we used to use the TTY
and now we have handheld devices and mobile devices
and that's all part of the improvement in accessibility.
It's interesting to note hearing people have benefited
from those various kinds of accessibility.
Another question, you mentioned
DPN was not necessarily a movement,
because it happened only at Gallaudet.
That wasn't the case.
But, rather, there were many necessary changes
that needed to happen that had not.
Jerry, could you elaborate a bit on that?
That's tough question, you're putting me on the spot.
I am very aware that people view DPN as a movement.
Or as a national movement.
And I do not believe it to be that way, due to the fact
that I was working with people on a regular basis
in the Midwest area and it was different.
Because individuals are still very oppressed
and there are issues we have not addressed as of yet
and I don't want to make it sound like DPN
was insignificant, because it was absolutely significant
and it made a huge impact on the deaf community
like Greg mentioned, we changed how deaf people actually feel
in terms of not --
how they view themselves in changing their attitudes,
in terms of limitations to "I can."
And deaf children are now saying, I am dreaming
of becoming the President of the United States
or I want to be an astronaut and that inspires me tremendously.
I commend Alan Hurwitz for being the deaf President
and honestly, I can brag about Gallaudet
because they have, in three presidents,
have made significant changes over 25 years
and I am very impressed
and couldn't ask for anything better.
But the problem is education for the deaf K-12
is still an issue and lacking
in terms of communication approaches
and also job opportunities.
East Coast and West Coast, great opportunities,
but in the Midwest, they are still struggling
and grappling and the attitudes and perceptions
are very different in the Midwest as well.
We have made changes here at Gallaudet to the point
where hearing people understand deaf people much better.
In terms of significant radical belief
and philosophical and legal changes, for individuals
that are born deaf, to their educational systems,
all the way to death,
that's something that needs to be looked at.
We can't sit back and let the system run --
be as it is, so we need to address this,
and there are grassroots core deaf community members
that still need our assistance and we should be able
to assist them and continue to do that.
And that's my philosophy.
I don't know if some people view this very differently
and I have respect for that.
During DPN, Greg, you were very laid back,
but you were able to attract people to become involved.
And you were very heavily involved with the passing
of the ADA in the 1990s.
I'd like your perspective and behind the scenes information
in terms of the passage of ADA.
As we know the disability community
had already began work on the ADA
and so we worked in tandem with them
always looking for civil rights to be obtained equally
for everyone, and I do need to mention
that the four of us took Dr. Mary Malzkuhn's class.
She had a government class here at the university.
Is Mary actually here?
Dr. Malzkuhn, are you here?
Hello to you Mary.
Mary Malzkuhn, in this class, repeatedly told the students
that the African-American movement
was very successful and gained great strides,
African-Americans had the right to vote
and a number of other changes had happened,
but where are the same changes replicated
in the deaf community?
So this was a theme we heard repeatedly in that class
and, of course, it was very fitting
considering what was about to transpire,
when the protests broke out and people around the world
developed a sense of inspiration and drive to make changes,
deaf people were gaining ground and moving up in the workplace,
that glass ceiling cracked wide open
and we were receiving great advances on employment front,
so all of that time up until 1988 until 1990, really,
is what the impetus led
to the Americans with Disabilities Act
and that was, of course, signed by President Bush.
The Law Center that was here at Gallaudet
was able to pull together individuals
from the disability community and we all came together
understanding each of us had different needs
to be recognized under the ADA.
We couldn't leave different groups out.
We had to politically align ourselves to be sure
everyone had a say in what was part of the passage of the ADA.
If you recall, I was quite young when all this
was transpiring, I graduated from Gallaudet,
and I was working here at the university,
under Dr. Roz Rosen who greatly encouraged me
and believed in my abilities,
and she wanted me to join the Law Center,
and from there really go to Capitol Hill.
So I did, in fact, on several occasions,
have the opportunity to help negotiate
the passage of the ADA.
It was a very difficult negotiation time,
there was a lot of concern
about transportation issues for individuals in wheelchairs
and although it didn't have a direct impact on us
nevertheless I wanted to be involved
in those deliberations.
There were, movie captions, of course,
were not made available to deaf individuals,
and there are a number of different obstacles
that prevented us from having access
to those public arenas.
So we knew that we had to continue to work
on all of these different fronts and keep a close eye
on everything that was happening.
So I attended a number of hearings
and once that passage occurred,
the next regulations were to be made available.
Of course, once the law passes, we have to make sure
regulations are in place
so that people know how to implement the ADA.
So there was a lot of feedback
and opening of comments to the regulations.
Some of them were regarding interpreters
and whether or not qualified interpreters should be certified
and how do we define what a qualified interpreter means,
so you can see, we got down
to the nitty-gritty here looking at specific definitions.
Bob Mather who was working
at the United States Justice Department
also very instrumental in making sure those definitions
were clearly spelled out
so we understood what qualified interpreters meant
and as a result and we can look around the United States
and see how the qualifications of interpreters
has really raised the bar in terms of expectations.
Thanks so much.
During DPN Greg was calm and politically savvy
and he said now, we have respect.
We have everything and it's the beginning for all of us.
Can you elaborate on that quote
and how has that affected your life in general?
On a personal level?
On a personal level, the quote that you just mentioned,
really, was something that I said kind of spur of the moment
when the announcement was made
that Dr. I. King Jordan was selected as the President
of Gallaudet University, so that very night
it's just something that came to me
and I spontaneously said that statement.
We were celebrating a victory and certainly stunned
as well to recognize, in fact, we did it.
We had worked hard and we had obtained what we set out for
and achieved success in our endeavors.
Of course, recognizing that was just the beginning.
We as community gained respect, and once the world around us
gave us that respect, we knew that in turn
we were expected then to take the responsibility
ascribed to us with that success.
So as a deaf person, we have a responsibility
to make sure our message is clear.
During that week, we were able to show
that deaf people wanted to control our destiny,
no longer were we willing to sit back
and take the requirements and demands placed on us,
but we wanted to be in control of our destiny.
And we had to take the responsibility
of ensuring that happened.
So what we do every day as deaf people,
reflects what can be done by our community
and the larger community outside is looking to us for that --
Bridgetta mentioned the passage of the ADA
and how DPN was instrumental in that passage.
Once again as a community, and individually
we took responsibility working alongside
the disability community for the passage of the ADA.
On a personal level, the ADA, of course,
has significant meaning to me as I work
at the Federal Communications Commission, responsible for
all the telecommunications implementation,
including accessibility,
and under the Disability Rights Office
I am chief of that office, in particular, I work
very closely ensuring that any communication access
is available, so deaf people and people with disabilities
have equal access under the law.
There's Internet captions, television captions,
relay services, as well as smartphone accessibility,
making sure that deaf people can use those
so there are a number of different avenues
I am responsible for overseeing accessibility and equality.
In my work there, I am daily reminded of the wonder that DPN
has actually brought to me, and I am in this position
that I am in as a result of what happened at DPN.
So it's all of you who have come together
as a community to ensure equal access and ensuring
we have equal access to telecommunications.
Let's move to Tim Rarus.
He was considered the most politically savvy of all
at that time.
He had just completed his term
as Student Body Government President.
And he was also very heavily involved
in the search committee for the next president.
Tim said that DPN was more than just the birth
of our first deaf president.
In fact, it represented deaf people now.
And then freedom from ignorance, and from being oppressed.
Tim, what kind of significance do you think DPN has had
historically in terms of the areas
of justice and accessibility?
Great. If you remember, a wall was created,
a wall of ignorance and oppression in the year 355 B.C.
by a Greek philosopher, Aristotle.
That wall was created at that time and oppression occurred
for so long until 1988.
And the past generations of deaf individuals
across the world and our allies who supported and advocated
in our cause, knew deaf people could
and it was time for us to remove that wall
of ignorance and oppression.
When that wall came down, you could see
the land of opportunity, not only the land, but the world,
the world of opportunity that was aside us
and I remember when I looked at Deaf Mosaic,
there were children on the show
and they were talking about becoming a lawyer
or a doctor and envisioning all the opportunities they had,
and we didn't have that in the past.
And 25 years later, we see more attorneys, just like Greg
we see more doctors.
All over the world, and there's a lot of people out there
that have these opportunities and I am amazed.
Just last week, the Switched at Birth program
with Sean Berdy and Marlee Matlin
and for the first time, I didn't have to watch the captions.
I could watch directly the direct communication
and then what I was thinking about was how the hearing people
had to read captions and I felt wonderful,
great, I was sitting in bed, of course,
I always watched CNN, but I thought I'll watch Bison TV
at the Kellogg Conference Center
and this is what is, down the road, what I want,
my daughter who is deaf to have a better life
and opportunity than I did.
My mom always said, being deaf is a full-time job.
There's a lot to it, so doors need to be opened
and we have demolished that wall,
and we have to put deaf people first, and help hearing people
see us for who we are, and that speaks to the significance
of ASL, when people go to other countries,
and they want to learn their language and their culture.
You can see at schools, and at universities now
they are offering deaf culture courses
and American Sign Language courses
so more people are aware of us, and that's just phenomenal.
It's more than just having a deaf president,
but if people were to ask me, having a deaf president,
right now, is understood,
but not having a hearing person in that position is a given.
Of course, we don't compare this to the U.S. Constitution
and someone from another country
is not going to be President of the United States.
They have to be born a citizen to be elected president
so the same goes for here at Gallaudet.
There will always be a deaf president here at Gallaudet.
So our future, deaf children can look forward
to a better life and a better career thanks to the work
that you have done
and the work that's been done in our community.
I'm sure you would all agree.
Now I have some general questions
any of you can respond to.
The four of you were very busy
during the week of the DPN movement
and I'm sure there were many other individuals involved
in the behind the scenes work that was being done,
coordinating all the logistics and everything else
that went into it.
Were you involved in the planning
and if so what was your level of involvement
in all those little nitty-gritty details between the scenes?
Anyone?
Greg?
You know, I have to admit and I have said this before,
in fact, I never planned for there to be a protest,
it was nothing that we thought and coordinated and planned out.
It was not that way at all.
So in terms of our strategy and goals
it was just simply to win the hearts of people,
especially among the student body
so we could get them behind us and get them involved
and to believe in the cause that we, in fact,
did need a deaf President.
So I worked very hard to make sure that happened
and make there was consensus and unity
among the student body and when the announcement was made,
the hearing president, Zinser was elected president
of the university I mean we certainly had some inkling
and some potential doubt that could happen,
but we were not fully prepared
for a full-blown protest and it wasn't until
that announcement was made of Dr. Zinser
that we absolutely had to do something
and we no longer take the consensus as it was,
but we had to get involved.
So there was a lot that was going on, and I could name
a number individuals who were behind the scenes,
wonderful people who were greatly involved,
who really made things happened, folks from the ***,
alumni chapters, community groups, the Ducks,
my brother Steven being one of them,
all of these individuals came together
and worked together to make this happen.
We all came together to talk about
what our next steps would be.
You know, we understood that every single minute mattered,
and everything was changing so rapidly
and, of course, at that time there was no social media,
no pagers, no cellphones, so everything had to be done
through face-to-face communication.
And with all that, everything was very well-coordinated
or it looked so from the outside view,
but if you were behind the scenes,
you could see we did have a lot of confusion
and we had to make sure
we were constantly on top of things,
to ensure the DPN Council was accurately representing,
and we had faculty, staff and students and community members
involved on the council to make sure
we had a unified message.
Again it looked very coordinated on the outside,
but after the protest was over I had the opportunity to just go
and speak at different places, colleges and universities,
and high schools, and different community events
and venues and they asked me
what the secret was behind the success of DPN.
And I had to say there were no secrets.
Nothing I could pass on as one token
to represent the significance of the success of DPN,
but I can speak to the fact
that it came to be as a result of a unified front
that was recognized between our communities.
Bridgetta?
I would like to add to Greg's comment,
it was the community played a huge role prior to the protest.
We were 20 years old at the time and very young,
and a group of individuals in their 30s, had experience
in this discrimination and oppression and so forth
and were kind of prompting us.
And we would follow their lead and Jerry
actually was a believer, and he started this whole protest
and all this effort and the --
So other individuals that really believed,
people in their 40s and 50s,
provided of all that necessary support for us.
We would love to name everyone involved,
but unfortunately we can't do that.
But the community was integral parts of the effort
and one day, one gentleman who is from the community
told me, when you were little and you were still learning
how to tie your shoes, the deaf community was behind you
in learning that, and I said, you know, that's true,
thank you very much for giving me the opportunity
and we will pass that along to our younger generation
and continue passing that along, and we'll work for them
and work for their rights,
equal rights for all generations.
Tim?
In terms of what was so successful about what we did,
I know I can speak to one thing.
We had four demands, of course, as student leaders --
but we couldn't do everything, of course.
we couldn't have done it without the community support.
We wanted to recognize 16 members --
there were four of us, but also individuals
who worked closely with us.
Four individuals behind each of us
who would meet together
and make sure we had people where they needed to be.
We had people who were kind of guarding the gates
and the entryways into Gallaudet
and other individuals helping bringing in food
and folks had different jobs to host meetings
and make sure the gym that used to be there
is where we would all gather together
this is just one example where we had to rely on our committee
to help us handle all the day-to-day operations.
Jerry just a brief comment, if you don't mind?
Exactly.
Just to add who that's been said and to emphasize the fact
that people who were involved in this protest
all of us being the leaders were supported
by a number of other folks who did so much for us.
They made sure the campus was closed,
they made sure the gates were locked.
They made sure everything was in place,
and the communication was happening.
Even though the announcement had yet to be made,
people were willing to come and give up
their spring break trips to be with us.
We didn't ask them to do that.
We were, of course, very concerned this announcement
would happen and people would leave for spring break
and Gallaudet administration would take control
and basically keep the decision in place.
We all decided as did many decided to stay
and make the movement happen.
Although we were the spokespeople
we could not have been successful
without the followers of many.
What I would like to do now is take a break.
We have two-minute video clip to show
our international viewers.
That was such a nice video.
Now just another general question for all of you.
Now hearing parents often encourage children,
hearing children to learn sign language.
For earlier language development,
and for good communication skills.
What's your stance on that?
I'd like to answer that.
Over the last 17 years, I have been working
at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont
as an educator.
This is a place of education
and I work there with an amazing community.
Very strong community.
It's very interesting what we are seeing now
because around America and, in fact, around the world
there's been this concern because a infant is born
and identified as deaf.
We understand their language acquisition and development
is critical for them.
If a baby is born hearing,
the baby is immediately exposed to spoken language
and acquires that language easily and readily.
But for a deaf baby, often they aren't exposed to sign language.
If they are, they are going to pick it up on par
as any other child learns any language from birth.
Now, we are seeing many hearing babies
are taught sign language because of this new trend
and it's been seen as something advantageous
for babies because the fine tuned vocal mechanisms
are harder it develop and these gross motor skills
are more easily attained through sign language.
And it really helps language acquisition
and a lot of work being done in the Palo Alto area,
about the importance of babies
learning sign language from infancy.
Gymborees offering sign language classes
as well as a number of other community agencies.
What a paradox when a parent who's hearing
gives birth to a deaf baby, they are told not to expose
the child to sign language, but speak to them
leaving the baby at a great loss for language ability,
aptitude and acquisition.
And many deaf babies are not learning sign language
as a result,
are not exposed to sign language as a result.
I come across a number of young deaf children
who have absolutely no language whatsoever.
This is something we can no longer allow to perpetuate
in the world around us.
Deaf babies need to have access to language.
It is a simple, basic human right, as is every other right
that is a necessity in our lives.
Food, clothing and language
should be the basic building blocks
of any child's successful life
and as a result needs to be made available to those children.
There are two issues that I thought about
when you asked that question.
One is to commend and recognize our language,
because it's wonderful.
It's our language is very valuable to our community.
The downside is that a lot of hearing teachers
are being hired to teach American Sign Language
and there's plenty of qualified deaf individuals
that know their language better
that could be teaching in that situation.
Other downside and negative is
when you have a deaf child that's born,
we are often told we have to speak to the deaf child.
And I find it amazing they never once told a hearing parent
of hearing children, that sign language
or teaching them sign language would ruin their hearing.
That infuriates me and that impacts our identity,
our culture, our language, and it's wonderful
to promote that, but you can't have your cake
and eat it, too.
You either use it or not use it.
So in some ways, it feels like they are taking
advantage of the language.
And these individuals need to be stopped.
I think it's time that we need to change that attitude,
the deaf children should be taught by deaf people
with the appropriate cultural knowledge
and fluency for our children.
It's an uphill battle for all of us is not?
Another general question.
Since 1988, we've had three deaf presidents here
at Gallaudet University.
Dr. I. King Jordan, followed by Dr. Davila
and then Dr. Hurwitz.
All of them being deaf.
So does that imply that the upcoming or next president
at Gallaudet University must be deaf?
As I mentioned earlier that is simply a given.
It should be part of the requirement
and nothing more to say on that matter.
I would also like to add to Tim's comments
I have had heard that question from time to time,
people asked me that same question and my response
typically is: It's a hypothetical question.
Suppose we arrive to a point where we have two candidates
and one candidate is hearing,
but has 100% deaf culture and came from a deaf family
and fluent in American Sign Language and has been
a strong advocate for deaf individuals and issues.
Versus a deaf individual who maybe from,
I don't know, a mainstream background
maybe more of a hearing environment, as well, so maybe
culturally hearing, so I would wonder if we would pick
that person, because they were deaf, over the other individual?
Before we think about arriving at the answer,
why would we have a hearing person
with a hearing background as a candidate?
They will have the skills, there's plenty of deaf people
who have the skills to fulfill that position.
If we only had two individuals,
I think the search would have to be done over again.
So if I could say, basically what you are saying
is we need to make sure the search is conducted thoroughly
and appropriately to be sure we have the individuals.
Jerry?
I agree exactly with what's been said
with Bridgetta and Greg.
You know, there are ways that the Gallaudet Board
can find qualified people.
You know, if they come up with a candidate pool
who are not necessarily qualified,
they can invite others to apply
and get more folks here to see who might be interested
in the position
so to me, I applaud the university for selecting
the last three deaf presidents,
and no offense to any of the previous deaf presidents,
but I do look forward to the time this university
will adequately train students and prepare them in such a way
that they will from birth to graduation
be able to be successful to the point they could take on
this position as president of the university,
and to me that's the ultimate goal.
I think that it's very wonderful to see that Gallaudet produces
the high caliber of folks they do
so I look forward to seeing this sort of thing happen
and I think the next president of Gallaudet
absolutely, has to be deaf.
No question.
I have faith it will happen.
Okay.
During the DPN movement, you had already mentioned
Mary Malzkuhn playing an important role
in your thinking and your approach,
that actually led to the movement.
Are there any other faculty members or staff
who played a significant role in these efforts?
Jerry?
Well, several faculty, like she mentioned Mary,
I just adore her, she played a significant role,
especially with all of us majoring in government.
She was phenomenal.
So I have to commend Mary over and over again.
But she was great.
And I remember several others, Dwight Benedict being one.
I had worked with him several years and he said,
you should meet with Jaime Tucker,
and I thought, oh, I'm not sure I should,
but Alan, please don't use this against anyone,
but back then, Dwight at that time was part of the Ducks group
but he had to be very cautious in his approach.
But he encouraged me to see Jaime Tucker.
And I thought I had no idea
why I'm going to sit down with Jaime Tucker.
But I also heard that he was very adamant
about having a deaf president
and, of course, some outsiders wanted it as well,
but we had to gather students and we didn't know how to.
I remember specifically those individuals.
Singleton was also working with them.
Steve, your brother, Greg, Steve was there,
but initially it was those three individuals
that had a significant impact
on how I approached this whole event.
Bridgetta?
I would like to comment next.
Really, I can probably speak for all four of us
to say that our parents were the first individuals
who inspired us.
Each of us, I can speak for myself when I was young,
growing up, I looked to my parents.
Our parents are actually all here in the audience,
are they not?
So I can remember growing up and my father working
in an environment where everyone was hearing
and he would come home then after a hard days work
and talk about the difficulties he encountered at work
and as youngster, hearing these stories,
I got to understand the way things were.
All of us experienced that sort of thing
where our parents would encourage us to get out there
and meet role models and we had professors,
of course, who also inspired and encouraged us.
Roz Rosen was a person I mentioned earlier
who encouraged me and supported me.
Jerry, I know, was mad at me in Government class,
Bridgetta what's wrong with you?
You have to get behind the deaf president thing.
Paul Singleton, who was a graduate student,
worked on the graduate education council together
and he was another person, is Paul here today?
There he is over there.
You were great, Paul.
Paul was also kind of getting on my back,
like, you know, we have to get more supporters,
the time is now.
We've got to make something happen.
So I respect all these individuals,
even though they were a bit irritated with me,
I can't say irritated with me personally,
but more about my apprehension
and they were more mad about the facts
of the way things were, as opposed to me as person.
Nevertheless when March 1 hit,
and the rally was first undertaken,
and Donalda was there, and John Levitz
and Roz Rosen gave a speech,
Jeff Rosen also spoke that day
and my boyfriend at that time was there as well.
My husband, Leslie Firl, but everyone came together
and when I was surrounded by these groups of individuals,
men and women all behind me, backing me,
taking me behind my back and saying, "you go,
this is the position for you."
I was able to do so, so I thank each and every one of you
for putting your faith and trust in me.
I wanted to respond quickly.
I want to mention and make sure that we have on record
that the four of us did actually go
to the Youth Leadership Camp for one month
which was a wonderful program.
That really instilled all of the leadership abilities.
After we came out of the program with this vision
and belief and deaf pride we had learned
that had just become automatic, and other wonderful individuals
just kept it going, and kept it strong,
but even before the protests began,
we had that experience from YLC.
Another general question.
DPN was considered one of the most successful protests.
We were able to bring together a world community all unified.
And very often, there's division within communities
and adversarial positions, but everyone
from every single background rallied together behind DPN.
How was it you were able to persuade students
and other individuals
to come together and work with you on this?
I guess we'll go first with Tim, and then Jerry, and then Greg.
So Tim.
You know, I guess I can use people
who don't use sign language
or the oral community as an example.
They have experienced oppression and discrimination.
And even people who use American Sign Language
really discriminated against those who didn't.
But we're still deaf and we are guilty of that,
but we have to think about it.
Where did the whole notion of oralism come from?
It came from people who are hearing
trying to make those of us who are deaf
look as though we are hearing and could speak.
And how wrong is that?
So when we reject people who don't use sign language,
but are deaf they feel left out
and they will align with the greater world
so instead, we have to embrace them.
That was one of the ways we made this happen.
Secondly, have you ever seen a deaf person
who willingly became oral?
Most of the people who use ASL wouldn't choose that path.
Think about it, would anybody willingly choose
a path of oralism when they knew ASL?
That simply would never happen.
So through the protests it was amazing to see people
who used cued speech,
people who didn't know sign language but were deaf or oral,
of all of these individuals come together
regardless of communication modality
all seeking that deaf president.
We did this together.
We can see this, all of us coming under this whole notion
that we didn't want that wall to be there for us
we wanted to tear down that wall
and let the world see, and that's how we did it,
by collaborating together.
Jerry?
Just to add to Tim's comment.
When I was at Gallaudet, there was, of course,
a variety of students, and communications modalities
being used in different various hearing losses.
And I remember going to the cafeteria
where we were talking about different issues,
talking with Paul Singleton
and trying to gather some support.
And people were unsure about how to communicate,
and the questions were: How is a deaf person
going to communicate with members of Congress
or deaf president at the time or legislators?
At the time there was no concern
about the students who were oral.
And we all just common ground that we all understood
that we were all deaf and that this person,
the president needed to be deaf.
It wasn't about a philosophy or a communication modality.
It had nothing do with those issues
and that was all set aside.
And we all agreed we had a hearing loss
whether or not it be more profound than others,
but we needed someone who had the same understanding
and experience as we did.
Regardless of the communication,
or educational background they still had the same barriers
we did, as any other individual,
and that was the common theme we stressed.
We needed a deaf person who understood us
and was familiar with our issues,
and with that common ground, we all collaborated
and united, and no one played favorites
to hard-of-hearing or deaf.
We all came together on this common theme
and we would always use just deaf, the deaf being the goal
without addressing communication modalities
and that really united us.
At the later point, we could deal with other issues,
but we didn't choose to deal with those at the time.
Tim, Jerry, just to follow up on the points you have made.
It's not like we're in a totally different era,
a different part of the world,
and we never considered those issues
that we face today that are in the current debates
or circles of debate.
We were very conscious and aware of the same concerns
everybody faces now.
But when it was announced that Zinser was stepping down,
from that position, we had achieved 3 1/2 demands,
but we were not quite all satisfied yet.
We also wanted to make sure that all of the students
remained here on campus throughout spring break
and wanted to make sure a deaf person was selected,
there was Harvey Corson and I. King Jordan,
the two deaf candidates.
We wanted to understand their backgrounds
and know fully who they were.
And it didn't matter to us which was selected,
we just wanted there to be a deaf president
and we knew at that moment once we had a preference
towards one candidate over the other,
we would be a divided community.
And we wouldn't be where we needed to be.
So we stayed together, unified together
backing both of the deaf candidates
that remained as potential presidents.
I think the key to making this all happen
was to gain the heart of our community.
Even though some of them
maybe came from mainstream background or oral backgrounds
we needed to come together and get them backing us
to be a part of who we were, to vote in favor with us.
So I won the SBG election by a landslide.
And so when I announced as part of my platform
when I became SBG President, that I wanted
to ensure that there would be a deaf president
that was the number one thing we needed to happen.
The bulletin sent out stated that very clearly.
I also had written a letter with Jeff Rosen
who worked with me to write that letter
and sent it to Elizabeth Zinser,
asking that she withdraw her application.
And saying if she was selected to the position of president,
she would not have the support of the students,
and no one would back her, no one would support her,
so what is the point of serving a community as president
if she didn't have the backing of her community.
It laid things out accordingly,
and we did some meticulous planning
to be sure everything was coordinated,
but that's basically how it went down.
Bridgetta?
I would like to actually bring us to right now, and forward.
In 1988 was amazing, because we did come together.
Even though we were from different backgrounds,
the graduate students who were hearing
and faculty and staff who were also hearing
believed in the deaf community
and supported our efforts and did that.
And felt like we needed to have a partnership
and have equal rights and with that, we could succeed
and be united, and then looking at the future,
I would like to, again and again and it's been my thought is
to continuously recommend and look forward to media efforts,
to the Supreme Court, as well as Congress,
and making recommendations to Congress.
Now in terms of media, "Switched at Birth" was phenomenal.
I want to thank Marlee Matlin for all of her work.
And Jack for making this happen.
And changing this mindset and the Gallaudet commercials
being aired during the commercial time and purple.
And that was just phenomenal.
So the media was very important.
Ryan Commerson just established,
redefined in terms of the media, and the window of opportunity,
and the window opportunity is closing.
It's really time to reach out
and grab the media's attention, because it's critical.
They play an intricate role in communication.
So we need to focus our efforts on communication.
Now, in terms of the Supreme Court,
the last case was the Rowley case, we are familiar with.
An opportunity that we had, and I have the privilege
to be friends with Rowley, and we share their family,
our kids are on the same baseball team.
Amy Rowley and I have talked about her experience
and through the Supreme Court case
that she went through.
Dr. Mary Malzkuhn did research on the best ways
to change the educational system for all deaf children.
And Dr. Mary Malkuhn's dissertation focused
on cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution
and Larry Segal, the attorney,
suggested a First Amendment case and not the IDEA.
Go to the First Amendment, the freedom of speech
for children that don't have language,
they don't have freedom of speech,
and that's where we can find and make those efforts,
and promote that and push that.
And this is for our deaf children
and bringing that to the Supreme Court's attention.
Now in terms of DPN 10, legislators,
I think it was Bonior from Wisconsin,
who was on the Board of Trustees,
said that the Capitol should have a deaf person
serving in the role, if we had someone there
it would be integral in making efforts,
so they should appoint a deaf person
and that would be supportive of the deaf community,
that should happen.
If anyone in the audience wants to serve as Congressperson
that would be the next great step in the deaf movement.
That was phenomenal.
Let's take a break now.
We will be watching two video clips.
The first clip is a story that highlights
three deaf international individuals
who have experienced firsthand the impact of DPN
in their lives.
The second video clip shows a number of deaf people
from all over the world.
So please enjoy these video clips.
That was so impressive and very inspiring.
Obviously, recognized DPN had an impact on us,
but we also recognize the impact
it had on deaf people around the world.
I just received questions from our live audience.
Let me go through the questions now.
First question: Gallaudet is rich in assets,
there's an elementary and high school right here on campus.
How can Gallaudet University better invest in its youth
to better prepare these students
to continue to fight and overcome the remaining barriers?
Bridgetta?
And then Jerry.
Because I work in a school environment,
and have for a number of years now,
I know from the California School for the Deaf
perspective out on the West Coast, we see different things,
and here's the Kendall and Clerc Center on the East Coast.
We recognize that around the world
and United States there are many wonderful resources,
skills and talents, and knowledge bases.
There are strengths people have in terms of pedagogy
and in terms of curriculum developments
and resource materials.
I would definitely recommend that the Clerc Center
reach out to pick the best practices
that they see around the world,
because they are to be the model of exemplary education,
that they reach out and bring this information together,
and then disseminate it
to deaf education centers around the world.
The university here plays a significant role in that.
There's not one place that has that kind of knowledge base,
that they can generate those ideas alone
but the Clerc Center needs to reach out
to the larger community
and disseminate those best practices.
That question is really sensitive.
Because I have two deaf children
and I see their education and what they are doing
and I have been involved in various IEP advocacy roles
and whether the parents are hearing or deaf,
I have experienced this and I think Gallaudet --
and some people may not appreciate this comment,
but Gallaudet needs to take a stance on deaf education.
I know Gallaudet is a federally funded program,
but Gallaudet is also considered by Congress
and government agencies as a leader and expert
in deafness-related issues
and we really need to take a stance for our students
and what they can achieve.
We can't be wishy-washy about communication
or this type of philosophy or methodology,
we have to take a stance.
We have thousands and thousands of school districts,
with a variety of educational philosophies
being used and educational backgrounds,
communication methodologies, with interpreting
and quality of interpreters,
I think that's just been perpetuated.
I think that the philosophy is that the children
of deaf education will not succeed and only a few will,
and everything would be status quo.
So children of deaf parents are very successful
and typically are, so hearing parents need us
and we need the educational systems
to be designed to educate children to succeed.
And that means with hearing people
they use their language and culture
and Gallaudet really needs to take a stance.
Of course, it's political, but we can say through research,
and studies and our expertise
we have years of experience so that is an opportunity
for us to take a stance.
I have not seen where a school has said,
we will be teaching -- I'm sorry -- excuse me --
we will be teaching our children in American Sign Language --
I have not seen that yet to this day.
That is a bilingual approach
and that's the philosophy that should be used.
People are very hesitant about stating that
and I think that Gallaudet needs to take a stance.
Thank you.
Greg?
Great point, Jerry.
And yes, I think we all know that research is available
that shows 90% of deaf children have hearing parents.
And there are a number of factors
that need to be explored.
But also it's important to know how to deal
with these hearing parents and their artificial expectations
that they have of their deaf children.
As Bridgetta has already pointed out,
typically what happens is the infant is born
and recognized as being deaf and they are pushed down
the oral track with speech training and auditory training
and there's very minimal chance
they will have much of a success.
So there's not much of a success rate.
And their ability to learn to speak like a hearing person
is what their parents are looking for
in terms of success.
And that's the artificial expectation
that we have to dispel and that's where our battle lies.
It's very difficult to dispel that notion
and that artificial myth that's out there.
Okay.
One person has said: You mentioned hearing allies
during DPN.
What role do you see as hearing ally in the future
as well as currently?
Jerry and then Bridgetta.
Despite our efforts, 25 years ago and looking like
we were anti-hearing in that situation,
I work with hearing people and have been for years.
And most of the hearing people I work with
are interpreters and I also work with educators,
deaf educators.
And going back to the interpreters that I work with
and the interpreters in general
and they are facilitators of communication
and the bridge between both worlds.
Now my perspective on hearing individuals are interpreters,
due to their various beliefs,
or depending on the Code of Ethics
and the state regulations and policies,
I think interpreters should play more of an advocate role
and should advocate for deaf people in a time of need.
And what I mean is the four of us
can easily speak for ourselves,
as well as the audience members here, many of us can.
We also have a community of grassroot deaf individuals
that don't have a appropriate advocates in place,
and interpreters should take that role and play that role.
That's my thought and perspective
if thinking about a larger deaf community.
Not talking about culture, but community.
They have a deaf heart, that's what we call it,
they're involved in the community
and want to see people succeed,
and the deaf community succeed,
and so they play a positive role in the community.
They do have connections, they have ways to communicate
with others that we can't,
so we should be working together with interpreters.
But of course, they should never take over,
and that's why we call them hearing allies,
and they are our friends and collaborators.
They could not succeed without us.
I would feel sorry for those two interpreters
if we didn't need them.
So they need us just as we need them.
And it works both ways, they have to function with us.
And I do appreciate hearing people's contributions
to the community and I hope they would appreciate
our contribution and do this in return.
Bridgetta?
You know, if I were walking
here on campus and I would walk into a classroom,
I would not be able to tell who in the classroom was deaf
and who was hearing,
because everyone is using American Sign Language
regardless of their hearing status.
This comes down to language
and language is what provides us access.
It's all about that.
So my suggestion would be,
is that hearing people continue to be our allies.
And not necessarily that they speak on our behalf
or for us, and often hearing people will be able
to hear things that we as deaf people don't have access to
and because of that they are able
to share information with us.
So I have a secretary who is hearing
and I was in one of the meeting rooms,
and the hearing secretary was sitting across from me,
and all of a sudden I see her chuckling to herself
and when I asked her about it
she said it just so happened the deaf principal
was in another room in a meeting,
and was making a lot of noise in the other room.
To back up, I first said they were pounding
and I thought, it must be the students
and I should walk out there
and tell the students to settle down.
She said no, it's not the students.
It's the principal.
Again it's just those little incidental things
we don't have access to, the sound-based things
that hearing people can function as partners
and allies to provide support to us as we do to them.
Once again, not taking over our position,
but rather sharing information and keeping us in the know,
so we can in turn speak for ourselves.
I have two hearing children and one deaf child,
and I look at the history of CODAs in the community,
and recognize these individuals
are an important part of our community.
They've already mentioned a lot of issues,
but I want to make one point.
We are not disabled.
Of course.
We may feel disabled at times.
And, for example, we were talking about hearing allies,
I think that individuals that can sign are great,
but they forget deaf people are there,
so when I walk in,
the hearing person looks over and then starts to sign.
I feel like I'm a burden to them.
And I don't want to feel that way.
So when you are on a deaf campus, sign all the time.
Sign all the way.
That should be automatic.
All right.
Move on to the next question.
I hadn't a seen a lot of people of color
or more women that have been mentioned
and their involvement with DPN.
What would you say in regards to that?
Bridgetta?
You know, I am not sure about that question.
I'm not naming women, I think I named a number of women
in my comments particularly, maybe people of color.
Fortunately I am blessed
to be from the San Francisco Bay Area,
where we have 144 different languages spoken.
So with that diversity, I am exposed to language variety
and diversity and have come to respect people
with different languages
and who come from different experiences and with that
we have to continue to be advocates for people of color,
to know how we can align with them
and provide our support.
Back in 1988,
that wasn't necessarily the thrust or the theme.
I think it was obviously a part of our thinking,
but it wasn't prevalent.
Now we know that time has changed,
that movement mostly led by men is a bit different these days.
We want to make sure to be all-inclusive
and reach out to the all the different communities.
I'm glad somebody raised the question because it's important.
Because diversity is part of our society.
And in 1988, if you look at the composition of students
at the time, as well as protesters and so forth,
looking at the composition of pictures of the protests,
we have a good diverse population.
So there were people of color involved in the protest.
DPN was about selecting a deaf person into that position
and that was the main idea, not giving a thought
about diversity at the time.
The one goal at the moment was the deaf president.
We didn't put a conscious effort into diversity at the time,
but we had a wonderful supporter
from each of the different organizations on campus.
And even hearing community members,
African-American community members,
at the time were supporting us,
and the Department of Public Safety had a significant number
of African-American employees that supported us.
Angel Ramos was also supportive of the effort.
So we did take a look at those issues,
and in this case, the four of us,
none of us were people of color,
but however that didn't change a bit
about in terms of our approach.
We just looked at everyone as being equal.
Just like we saw in this video, in the world
we have one commonality of being deaf, even if being
a very diverse population, I think that actually
was true throughout this whole time period.
Jerry?
You know, I don't want to in any way minimize
that diversity was not a role, like was just said by Greg.
It was more primarily about having a deaf president
and that was our number one focus and drive.
It didn't matter whatever race or gender,
they just needed to be deaf.
When Zinser was announced as president,
I remember an interviewer give me a presentation.
I said I don't care if she is the first hearing woman,
it would be nice if she was the first deaf woman.
It wasn't about gender or race, nothing about that.
But all about someone being deaf.
It would be fine
if it was the first African-American deaf person,
but again, what looking for back at that time
was just that person be deaf.
And again, I don't want to downplay the issue,
or say it's not significant,
but I just know that being deaf was the key.
Bridgetta was part of that
and we all mentioned Mary Malzkuhn
and the important influence that she had in our lives.
I'm sure if she was younger,
she'd probably be up here on stage
even now with her walker to give us her comments
and share her words of wisdom.
All my love to you, Mary.
I have a short comment.
Of course, this is a new learning experience.
We are learning from people of color, still.
I'm not very familiar with it, but we are all still learning
and we also have the idea that we are all colorblind
and that's not true.
We are no longer colorblind.
We have to recognize the variety of backgrounds
and the differences and traditions
and different heritage and cultures of individuals
and recognize as well as respect these cultures.
And not to be colorblind.
So that's an evolving process, and they continue to teach us,
the people of color do, and we continue to learn.
It's an ongoing process as we all understand.
Okay, one more question.
This comes from Munich, Germany.
And it says: The DPN movement was comprised
primarily of deaf people looking for a deaf president.
But what if there were a hearing candidate who was a part
of the deaf community, would that person be eligible
to become President of Gallaudet?
Jerry?
Sure, we probably would be open to a candidate
that was hearing.
But again, if we looked to the number
of hearing universities that are out there, I would encourage
that candidate to go to one of these institutions,
so we could have a deaf president.
People could apply at Harvard or Yale
or Boston University or Georgetown.
Would a deaf person apply there and get the job as president?
Probably not, so this is the place for that.
There are other colleges and universities
for the hearing people to apply
and I would strongly encourage them to do so.
Greg?
The answer to that question is "no."
I explained earlier, if you got to a point
where that was the best candidate and they are hearing
and even came from a deaf background
and they are hearing and part of the deaf community,
I would say search again,
there are plenty of deaf individuals out there
perfectly qualified and plenty of them,
so don't give me any type of excuse
that there's not, because there are plenty.
Tim?
You know, I have three hearing sons.
Blake, Chase, and Austin and they are CODAS.
They are fluent signers and if they wanted to apply
for Gallaudet president, I would forbid them from doing so.
You could apply to any hearing university
and that would be a big gain for us.
We could see a CODA running Harvard University,
making that community more aware of deaf people
or even better what about someone like Greg Hlibok,
who could become a professor of the Harvard School of Law
if a CODA were President.
We need CODAs out there
to spread the gospel of ASL and our culture.
That's what our hearing allies can be doing.
Thank you very much for your stories and comments,
and for everyone to come out this afternoon to watch
and the alumni and friends, all over the world
who are watching this event,
I hope to see all of you again in another 25 years
when we are celebrating 50 years of DPN.
And for those alumni and friends that are hosting
these events, please send pictures
of your events this afternoon for our next newsletter
that is gonna be sent out and also posted on Facebook,
and be sure to also donate to Gallaudet.
You can donate to the DPN Fund,
or any other funds of your preference.
So let's watch one more final video.